A blog on politics and education, supporting socialist ideals and equality of opportunity. Against obscene wealth and inequality.

Thursday, 10 September 2015

Labour stronger under Corbyn

Well, she would say that,
wouldn`t she (Morning Star, 05/09/15)? Yvette
Cooper, like her Tory-lite comrades in the Labour leadership race, is, in
desperation, still trying to suggest that the Labour party will somehow become a
weaker opposition to the Tories under Corbyn`s leadership. The idea that Labour
will not be a “credible threat” and allow the Tory government to become “more
right-wing” is frankly, quite ludicrous.

The reason Labour has been
weak in opposition to Cameron`s coalition, and now Tory, government is because
so many of its policies have been too similar to those of the Conservatives to
allow downright condemnation of what they have been doing. How can criticism of
government cuts be effective when Labour has, in principle at least, been in
tacit agreement with the policy? How can Labour have attacked the glaring
inequality in this country, which has the government`s support, when it has no
positive proposals to reduce it? Does anyone really believe things would not
change dramatically with Corbyn at the helm?

Cameron has had a relatively
easy ride, especially at PMQs, because he has been able to counter any attacks
Miliband and Harman made, by cashing in on Labour`s indecisiveness and
ever-changing stances. With Corbyn, however, Cameron will be unable to achieve
any level of ascendancy because the opposition will have an ideological base
which would underpin all policies, and provide the consistency which has been
lacking in recent years. Corbyn`s ability to answer all questions in a language,
both straightforward and intelligible, has to be bad news for Cameron, whose
obfuscation and waffle will be highlighted even more.

If his leadership does
drive the Tories to the right, as Cooper suggests, this can only benefit Labour;
every extremely right-wing or biased action by Osborne or the prime minister,
such as the recent rewarding of party donors by the awarding of peerages, and
adding to the upper house`s lack of relevance and credibility, or selling off
RBS shares at ridiculously low prices to friends in the City, can only be
electorally beneficial to a united Labour party.

It`s increasingly clear that
the Tories do not agree with Cooper either, as they have already begun to oil
the wheels of their propaganda machine, and attack Corbyn, five years before
facing him at the 2020 election. Describing him as a "peacenik", and promising
to spend £500m on the Trident naval base at Faslane, have revealed their fears
of how influential Corbyn has become, and, more importantly, how popular his
poliices already are.

Tories have clearly seen that
the threat posed to them by a Corbyn-led Labour party is far more serious than
from an opposition led by one of the other three candidates. The only snag is
that many in the Labour party itself cannot see it!